BWW Reviews: BARRY HUMPHRIES: EAT PRAY LAUGH, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, November 5 2013

Starting out in the 1950s, most of Barry Humphries' characters are a little before my time. I may have been the only person in the theatre who knows Dame Edna best for her 2001 recurring role on Ally McBeal.

I had been warned about Les Patterson beforehand. He was described to me as 'a grotesque man who spits a lot' which was a very accurate representation. I would advise against sitting near the front. At the beginning of the show he announced 'if you're here for political correctness, you can **** off home'- which resulted in a rare moment of the audience actually being offended. I found a lot of his material to be in bad taste plus the constant spitting and drooling made him really difficult to watch.

Next up we had a new character created for the Farewell Tour: Les Patterson's brother, disgraced priest Gerard. Potentially even more offensive that his sibling, Gerard has a keen interest in young boys. For a new character the material seems dated and overdone. Closing the first half of the performance was the departed Sandy Stone. While I found some of the routine painful to watch I was also grateful that this character had better control of his saliva.

The second half was all about Dame Edna and it was a far more pleasant experience. With a hilarious opening video sequence and a truly spectacular entrance it was a stark contrast to the earlier part of the show. This section was treated more like a stand-up routine with plenty of audience interaction. The material had been tailored to fit the Edinburgh crowd and this was an excellent touch which seemed to go down really well. Dame Edna was undoubtedly the star of the show and by far the best Humphries character.

Overall, I enjoyed the evening but I think that although most of the audience found his offensive humour entertaining, I can't imagine he would get away with that for much longer.

Eat Pray Laugh is on tour around the UK until March 2014.